Sewing needles



April 24, 1 T. D. HUNTER ETAL SEWING NEEDLES Filed July 13, 1959 I28 INVEQIORS r/ o/vms 0. HU/V7'5e JUL/US M l o/V524 ,4 rmemavs United States Patent @a 3,tl31,116 SEWING NEEDLES Thomas D. Hunter, 16 liraeniar Terrace, and Julius M. Pomerantz, Apt. 12, 6 Macdonneil Road, both of Victoria, Hong Kong, BALE.

Filed July 13, 1959, Ser. No. 826,548 1 Claim. (Cl. 223-1tl2) This invention relates to hand or machine sewing needles of the type generally used with thread, yarn, string or other desired sewing materials, in any of its sizes, and more specifically, the instant invention pertains to the provision of means in the eye end of the needle for facilitating the fitting of the sewing material therein.

Thus, one of the primary objects of this invention is to eliminate the usual and familiar difficulties norm-ally associated with the threading of conventional sewing. needles having eyes formed therein, and more particularly, this invention proposes the provision of means for quickly and easily threading needles having very fine sized eyes.

A still further object of this invention is to provide means for facilitating the threading of a needle having an eye formed adjacent one end thereof, the means including a slot opening from one side of the needle and extending into open communication with the eye itself whereby the needle may be easily threaded by holding taut the thread, yarn, string or other sewing material between the fingers and thumb of one hand and the needle held casually but at an angle normal or approximately normal to the sewing material, the latter being drawn across and in contact with the sewing material under tension in the direction towards the eye region of the needle until the sewing material engages within the access way or opening and passes into the eye of the needle.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a needle of the type generally described supra, wherein the aforesaid means enable the needle to be threaded on and at any desired point on a length of the sewing material with the needle held in any fixed position. This feature of the invention eliminates tedious complications involved in some sewing techniques.

This invention contemplates, as a still further object thereof, the provision of a sewing needle of the type generally described above, the needle being non-complex in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, and durable in use.

Other and further objects and advantages of the instant invention will become more evident from a consideration of the following specification when read in conjunction with the annexed drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of a needle constructed in accordance with this invention, FIGURE 1 illustrating details of the access passage which communicates with the eye of the needle;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom plan view of the. needle shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an end elevational view of the needle i1- lustrated in FIGURE 1, FIGURE 3 being taken substantlally on the vertical plane of line 33 of FIGURE 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 4 is a detail cross-sectional view of the needle shown in FIGURE 1, FIGURE 4 being taken substantially on the vertical plane of line 4-4 of FIGURE 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

FIGURE 5 is a side elevational view of a sewing needle constructed in accordance with the second embodiment of this invention.

Before proceeding immediately with a description of the instant invention, it should be pointed out that the invention may be practiced with needles having any eye 3&3 l ,1 lb Patented Apr. 24, 1962 configuration from square to rectangular round, oval, triangular or of any other desirable design, with either highly and/or lightly relieved inside corners. The access opening in one wall of the eye may be formed by any of the known processes for removing or displacing metal or the material of which the needle is constructed.

While, as it will be seen from the following specification only two access openings are specifically described, it is to be understood that the shape, contour and/ or limits of the access opening may be delineated by parallel lines, straight or undulating lines, by converging (nonparallel) lines which may be straight or undulating, by convex or concave line shape features, incorporating other geometrical forms, such as spheres, ellipsoids, paraboloids, etc., which may be deemed necessary or expedient in order to render the opening in the wall of the eye of the needle perfectly functional.

The dimensions of the opening into the eye are directly related to the diameter of the needle and to the overall dimensional proportions of the eye and, indirectly related to the diameter or gauge of the thread, yarn, string or other sewing material which is to be used.

The instant invention is designed to provide an access opening or passage into the eye of any designed needle to efiect a modification thereof, but it should also be noted that the desired access opening could be formed simultaneously with the eye opening.

The dimensions of the access opening are directly related to the diameter of the needle and to the overall dimensional proportions of the eye and, indirectly related to the diameter or gauge of the thread, yarn, string or other sewing material to be utilized.

In the practice of this invention, it is not intended to diverge from standard needle designs irrespective of type, size or function.

To further clarify this invention and still by way of preamble, it should be borne in mind that a number of fixed characteristics predominate in the construction of needle eyes, namely, that (1) the width of the eye is usually not greater than twice nor less than equal to the thickness of the side walls abounding it, but these characteristics may be altered and still include an opening in the wall of the eye; (2) the relieving of the inside corners of the extremity of the eye nearest the point of the needle is always either equal to or greater than the relieving at the other extremity, but these characteristics may be altered without affecting the nature of this invention pertaining to the provision of an opening in the Wall of the eye; and, (3) that the length of the eye is directly related to the length of the needle and to its gauge except in very special instances.

These basic features are dictated by reason of funda mental physical laws involving the strength of material employed, and the extent to which a reasonable amount of structural design may be introduced to facilitate the manufacture of the needle. The opening forming the subject matter of the instant invention does not in any way detract from or negate these primary prerequisites in that (1) the principle involved may be applied to any known standard size of needle without altering the normal overall dimensions of the needle in any manner whatsoever; (2) a common formula of construction may be employed whenever it is desired or required to reproduce this new type of slot or opening in the wall of a needle having any size or form or type of modern sewing needle; and, (3) the opening is so designed that it can be formed at the same time as the eye is usually formed in the normal manufacturing process of the needle.

Research has shown that in the final analysis, the eye configuration of any needle must, invariably, fall into three main classes directly related to eye wall thicknesses, which in turn, must be subdivided into three or four types of either class, depending on, relative eye length/width ratios (i.e., when the wall is equal to onehalf of the eye width; when the wall thickness is equal to the eye width; and when the wall thickness is greater than the eyewidth). In the drawing annexed hereto FIG- URE 1 illustrates one class, to wit, when the wall is equal to the eye width, and in the second class illustrated in FIGURE wherein the wall is equal to onehalf of the eye width.

The types in these two classes depend on the various length to width ratios normally encountered. These range from 2:1; 3:1; 7:1, respectively, and in the very elongated eyes as much as 16:1. In all instances, however, the same principle or formulation of construction is employed in the designing of the access opening to suit the particular size or type of any needle.

Referring now more specifically to the drawing, reference numeral 10 designates, in general, the eye end of a needle constructed and designed in accordance with the teachings of this invention. The needle eye end is seen to comprise an elongated shank 12 having a pair of opposed arcuately shaped top and bottom ends 14, 16 (see FIGURE 3) and a pair of opposed, laterally spaced and substantially parallel sides 18, 20. The outer end 22 of the shank 12 is substantially ogive in configuration.

An elongated slot 24 is formed in the shank 14 and extends transversely therethrough from side 18 to side 20. The slot 24 is defined by a top wall 26 and a partial bottom wall 28 disposed substantially parallel thereto, the top and bottom walls 26, 28 converging inwardly in the direction of the needle point as is illustrated at 30, 32 for connection at their inner ends 34, 36 with the outer ends of an arcuately shaped relief end wall 38.

The free end of the partial end wall 28 terminates in a longitudinally extending tongue 40 having a fillet 42 formed therein, the fillet being struck on a radius determined in the manner to be described below.

Projecting inwardly and upwardly from the ogive outer end 22 and into the slot 24 towards the top wall 26 is the remaining bottom wall portion 44.

From FIGURE 1 it is seen that the remaining end portion 44 tapers in width as it extends into the slot 24 and terminates at its narrowest end in a substantially cylindrical cross-bar 46 having semi-spherical ends 48, 50. The arrangement is such that the bar 46 is disposed in vertically spaced relation relative to the tongue 40, and the angle of inclination of the surfaces 52, 54 are determined in a manner to be set forth below. It should be here noted, however, that the plane of the surface 52 is tangent to the cross-bar 46 and that the longitudinal axis thereof is contained in a plane which includes the surface 54.

For purposes to become more clear below, it should be noted that the other end of the slot 24 is relieved by an arcuate end wall 58 with special reference being made to the line of junction 60.

It is thus seen that a passage or slot 62 is formed in the bottom wall which communicates at its inner end with the slot 24, the slot 62 or access opening being generally defined as disposed between the cross-bar 50 and the tongue '40 together with its fillet 42.

To obtain a needle of the type described above, a conventional needle including the eye thereof having the desired configuration is first selected. Thereafter, an enlarged silhouette of the eye end of the needle is made. On the silhoutte is now drawn through the outline of the slot 24 a longitudinally extending center line DD which bisects the arcuate end walls 38, 58. At a desired substantially centrally located point on the center line DD is erected a vertical reference line A-A perpendicular to the center line D--D. The reference line A--A may move longitudinally of the center line D--D depending upon the desired location of the slot or access opening 62.

Having constructed these two lines at right angles with respect to each other, and observing that the reference line AA traverses the outer surface line of the bottom wall, the point of traverse of the line AA with the line of silhouette designating the outer surface of the partial bottom wall 28 locates the outer tip of the tongue 40, and the plane of the inner surface of the tongue 40 is determined by drawing the construction line BB across the silhouette tangent to the arcuate end wall 38 at the relief point 36. The point of intersection of the construction line BB with the reference line AA designates the terminal end of the tongue 40.

Still referring to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, a point F is located on the vertical reference line AA at the intersection of the latter with the inside edge of the wall thickness. Now a construction line C-C is drawn through the point P parallel to the construction line BB, the plane of the construction line C-C defining the surface 54. This line also determines the point 70 of the member 44.

A circle is now constructed with the mid-point thereof located on the construction line C-C, the diameter of the circle being equal to the diameter of the semi-spherical ends 48, 50, and the radius of which is derived by dividing the distance between two points 72, 74 located on the inside and the outside surfaces of the bottom wall 28 by two. The surface 52 is now developed by drawing the line G-G through the relief point 60 and tangent to the circle defining the outline of the semispherical ends 48, 50. I

When the angle of entrance of the access slot 62 becomes more acute than twenty degrees (shown in FIG- URE 1 as being fourteen degrees) it is desirable to provide the fillet 42. This arcuate recess is struck with a radius equal to the distance between the above described points '72, 74 from the center point of the spherical ends 48, 50.

The resulting drawing is then utilized by conventional methods to form the new needle by known processes for removing or displacing metal or the material from which the needle is made.

FIGURE 5 illustrates a second embodiment of this invention wherein the angle of entrance of the access slot or opening exceeds 20 degrees, and in this instance is illustrated as being substantially 40 degrees.

In this embodiment a needle having a shank 102 has been formed with an eye 104 extending axially therethrough. The eye is provided, at its opposed ends with arcuately shaped relief end walls 106, 108 and includes the critical relief points 110, 112 at oppositely disposed ends thereof. From the ogive end 1 14 projects inwardly into the slot 104, a bottom wall arm 116 which tapers from its outer end towards its inner end to terminate in a cross-bar 118 having opposed semi-spherical ends 120 (only one being shown). The arm 116 includes oppositely disposed upper and lower planar surfaces 122, 124, respectively, of which the plane of the surface 122 is tangent to the semi-spherical ends 120, and the semispherical ends 120 are constructed in such a manner as to be suspended below the plane of the surface 124. The plane of the surface 124 is disposed parallel to the plane surface 126 of a tongue 128 in spaced relation relative thereto to provide an access opening 130 therebetween whereby a thread of sewing material may be passed through the opening 130 for entry into the slot 104. As is seen in FIGURE 5, the semi-spherical ends 120 and the cross-bar 118 are disposed in vertically spaced re lation relative to the tongue 128.

As in the previous embodiment, the new needle 100 is constructed from a profile or silhouette drawing of a conventional needle having the eye or slot 104 provided therein. The slot or eye 104 is elongated axially to form a major axis identified as D-D'. Depending upon the desired location of the opening 130 a vertical reference line A'A is erected perpendicular to the center of the line D'-D'. A line is now drawn through the intersection X of the outer line of the bottom wall of the needle 100 with the reference line AA to determine the outer end of the tongue 128. A construction line BB is extended through the point X and the relief point 110 to establish the planar surface 126. The point F is determined, as before, at the point of intersection of the reference line A'--A' with the original plane of the inner surface Y of the bottom wall of the slot 104. Through F is extended a construction line C--C parallel to the line B'-B which defines the plane 126 of one side of the access opening 130. On the line C'C is constructed a circle having a radius equal to one-half of the thickness of the slotted bottom wall tangent to the point P to outline the semi-spherical ends 120 of the cross-bar 11 8. A line G'--G' is now drawn through the relief point 112 tangent to the upper side of the aforedescribed circle to define the planar surface 122.

From the foregoing description it will be understood that the access opening 130 extends between the planar surfaces 124, 126.

From the foregoing specification it now becomes manifest that the two described embodiments of this invention eliminate the necessity of threading a needle in the conventional manner. To effect the threading it is only necessary that the needle be moved transversely across the sewing material to cause the same to enter the slots 62 or 130 or that the sewing material be moved relative to the slotted side wall of the needle in such a manner as to engage the same within the slots 62 or 130 to be eventually deposited within the eyes 24 or 104.

Having described and illustrated two embodiments of this invention in detail, it will be understood that the same are oifered merely by way of example and that the instant invention is limited only by the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A needle having an eye formed therein defined by a pair of oppositely disposed side walls and a pair of oppositely disposed end walls, one of said side walls being interrupted intermediate its ends with a transversely extending access opening communicating at its inner end with said eye, said interrupted side wall having a portion thereof extending into said eye and forming an arm having a free end, said free end of said arm having a substantially cylindrical cross-bar formed thereon and extending transversely across said eye, said cross-bar having at the opposed ends thereof semi-spherical elements, and said arm having an inner surface the plane of which is tangent to said cross-bar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 102,380 Donaldson et al Apr. 26, 1870 1,055,058 Leighton Mar. 4, 1913 2,274,054 Ficcio Feb. 24, 1942 2,327,058 OKeefe Aug. 17, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS 499,225 Italy -1 Nov. 10, 1954 

